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Memorial announces injury prevention institute in Savannah

Steve Bisson/Savannah Morning News Dr. Gage Ochsner talks to the press following an announcement of the creation of the Institute for Injury Research and Prevention at Memorial University Medical Center to be named in honor.

Memorial University Medical Center officials on Wednesday announced the creation of a program to reduce injury and violence through research education and outreach.

The M. Gage Ochsner M.D. Institute for Injury Research and Prevention at Memorial’s trauma center will seek ways to reduce the impact of injury and violence with a goal of reducing trauma injuries within two to three years.

And Maggie Gill, president and CEO of Memorial Health, announced a campaign to cover the $1 million in start-up costs, adding that half of that has already been covered through gifts to the Memorial Health Foundation. The remainder will be made with donations to the foundation, she said.

Memorial Health is the parent corporation for the medical center.

The new institute is expected to be up and running by the middle of 2013, officials said.

The institute is the vision of Ochsner, chief of trauma services and surgical critical care at Memorial, who said the program “will have a single focus, that is to reduce trauma-related death and suffering in our region through research, education and outreach efforts.”

Memorial is the region’s only Level One trauma center and last year treated 2,700 traumatic injuries.

“There are no risk factors, symptoms or cures for trauma,” Gill told a group gathered at Memorial’s Heart & Vascular Institute lobby for the announcement. “It can strike any person, at any time.”

In Georgia, deaths from trauma are 20 percent higher than the national average, she said.

“It is estimated that 700 lives could be saved each year if our state’s trauma death rate improved to the national average,” Gill said. “But what if we could reduce the number of injuries?”

Hospital officials want to pursue a “proactive approach” to reducing those numbers, she said.

The institute will be led by a team of physicians, nurses, researchers, educators and other health professionals who will identify the leading caused of preventable injuries in the region and provide education to significantly reduce those incidents.

Based on trauma center volume, Ochsner said Memorial will admit 250-320 patients, of which 18-20 will probably die, between now and the end of the year.

He said trauma gives no warning and impacts people regardless of age.

“We see so many traumas that could have been less serious and even prevented if only the patient had taken appropriate precautions,” Ochsner said. “As an academic medical center, (Memorial) has the infrastructure in place to create an outstanding injury prevention institute based on research and prevention.”

“If we can save just one life, our efforts will be worthwhile,” he said.